Abu Ghraib Whistleblower Speaks Out

by Michele Norris

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Jeff Riedel

Sgt. Joseph Darby disclosed the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib to military investigators. Scroll down to read his story. GQ, September 2006

All Things Considered, August 15, 2006 · No longer restrained by a government gag order, the Army reservist who first told military investigators about photos of inmate abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is speaking out.

Many of Sgt. Joseph Darby's former comrades from the 372nd Military Police Company have been sentenced to prison for their roles in the Abu Ghraib case. Darby, who will leave the Army at the end of August, cooperated with those prosecutions.

Prisoner abuse started at Abu Ghraib even before his unit arrived, Darby says. "Disgusted" by the now-infamous photographs, he decided to alert the Army's Criminal Investigation Division.

He says that he asked Army Spc. Charles Graner -- who is now serving a 10-year sentence for his role at Abu Ghraib -- for photographs of their time in Iraq that he could keep as mementos. One of the CDs Graner gave him contained the photos of the prisoner mistreatment.

His identity as the whistleblower was made public in May. When he returned to the United States, Darby was placed in protective custody.

Nonetheless, Darby says disclosing the abuse was "the right decision and it had to be made."

Darby's story will appear in the September issue of GQ magazine, an excerpt of which appears below.

Excerpt: 'Prisoner of Conscience'

“I slept fine while I was there, but now I have nightmares. And a few days before my unit left Abu Ghraib, all of a sudden people started worrying about mortar attacks for the first time. It was weird. They'd be huddling against the wall together. I found myself crouched in a corner, praying. The numbness was wearing off. That's one of the things you have to keep in mind when you look at the pictures. We all got numb in different ways.”

In 2004, an American soldier stationed at Abu Ghraib handed a CD full of incriminating photographs to the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The soldier's name was Joe Darby, and the pictures showed the world what was happening at the now notorious prison. For this act of courage, he was vilified by his fellow soldiers, his friends, and even his family. Now, for the first time, Darby tells his story.

As told to Wil S. Hylton.

The compound had a main prison, which was two stories high, a series of smaller prisons, an administrative building, and a small building called the Death Chamber. That's where Saddam used to torture his prisoners. There was a room with ceramic tile on the walls, floor, and ceiling so the blood would come off easily. Outside, there was a tent camp. That's where we housed the prisoners who'd committed normal crimes. Some of them were really minor offenses that would only get a two-month sentence, but they might be housed for three years while they waited for trial. The system was that backed up.

As long as the mortars landed on a building, it wasn't a big deal -- they weren't powerful enough to pierce the roof. But if one landed in the yard or in the tent camp, it could do a lot of damage. Like, one night they got lucky and split our fuel tanker in half. Dropped a mortar right through it. It caused a fire you could see for miles, probably 4,000 gallons of burning fuel. Another time, they dropped one in the middle of a prisoner prayer group. That was pretty bad. These guys had just been sitting in rows, facing Mecca and praying, when the mortar came in. We had fifteen to sixteen dead and a bunch more wounded. We had to dig through the bodies, put them in body bags, and take them to the processing area to check them out of the prison. Whenever a prisoner was brought in, we would ID them with a retina scan and fingerprints, so when they died, we had to process them out the same way. Which meant that, for the rest of the day, we were digging through body bags looking for eyeballs. Sometimes there wasn't an eyeball we could use, so we'd look for a finger. You just had to tune it out. You couldn't let it get to you. You got numb.

But it catches up to you later, when you get home. Like, I slept fine while I was there, but now I have nightmares. And a few days before my unit left Abu Ghraib, all of a sudden people started worrying about mortar attacks for the first time. It was weird. They'd be huddling against the wall together. I found myself crouched in a corner, praying. The numbness was wearing off. That's one of the things you have to keep in mind when you look at the pictures. We all got numb in different ways.

I'll say this, too: The abuse started earlier than anybody realizes. Nobody has ever said that publicly, but there were things going on before our unit even got there. The day we arrived, back in October of 2003, we were getting a tour of the compound and we saw like fifteen prisoners sitting in their cells in women's underwear. This was day one; nobody from our unit had ever set foot in the prison. We asked the MPs in charge -- the Seventy-second, out of Las Vegas -- why the prisoners were wearing panties. They told us that it was a corrective action, that these guys had been mortaring the compound. So probably the MPs decided to mess with these guys. This stuff was going on before we arrived. After we took over, it basically just escalated.

The other thing was, there were other government agencies who would come into the prison and handle prisoners. I can't say which agencies, but you can probably guess. Sometimes we didn't know exactly who they were. We'd get a call at like three in the morning from the battalion commander, saying, “You have a bird coming in. You need to take prisoner such and such from cell whatever to the landing zone in fifteen minutes.” So I'd put my gear on, cuff the prisoner, bag him, go to the LZ, wait for the helicopter to land, and then hand the prisoner off to the guys inside. I didn't know who they were. Didn't ask. When they tell you not to ask any questions, you don't ask questions. They might bring the prisoner back in a few hours, or the next morning, or two days later. You didn't ask. Other times, they would bring a new prisoner into the compound. You didn't know who they were, or who the prisoner was, or what he had done, or what they were going to do to him. You just handed over the cellblock. One night, this Black Hawk landed at about 4 a.m., and a couple guys came in with a prisoner and took him to tier 1, put sheets up so that nobody could see, and spent the rest of the night in there. They told us to stay away, so we did. Then a couple hours later, they came back out. They were like, "The prisoner is dead." They asked for ice to pack him, and then they said, "You guys clean this up. We weren't here. Have a good day." Got back on the bird and took off, left the dead body right there. Those guys can come in and kill a guy, and there's nothing you can do. There's no record of them. They were never there. They don't exist.

You've probably seen pictures of that prisoner with Graner and Harman crouching next to his dead body, giving the thumbs-up. Well, that's the guy. Everybody takes that picture at face value, but the truth is, Graner and Harman didn't kill him. And when something like that happens, it stretches the limits. Maybe Graner and Harman came away thinking, Okay, let's take it further.

More

If Rice bumps into Iran official, she'll be polite

Monday, April 30, 2007;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice bumps into the foreign minister of Iran, she will be polite but firm about U.S. resolve to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, President George W. Bush said on Monday.

Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Rice could encounter each other at a conference in Egypt this week on stabilizing Iraq. Their attendance at the same forum has raised speculation about bilateral talks.

"Should the foreign minister of Iran bump into Condi Rice, Condi won't be rude; she's not a rude person. I'm sure she'll be polite," Bush said at a news conference after meeting with European Union leaders.

"She'll also be firm in reminding the representative of the Iranian government that there's a better way forward for the Iranian people than isolation," Bush said.

The meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will bring together Iraq's neighbors and members of the Group of Eight nations and the European Union.

The United States has accused Iran of helping to destabilize Iraq by allowing arms and foreign fighters to cross its border. Tehran denies the charge.

The United States and other Western countries accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its program is for generating electricity.

"I happen to believe a significant threat to world peace today and in the future is the Iranian threat if they were to end up with a nuclear weapon," Bush said. "Today is the wrong word -- in the future -- they don't have a weapon today."

He said if Iran wanted a dialogue, it should give up its nuclear enrichment activities.

"If in fact there is a conversation, it'll be one that says if the Iranian government wants to have a serious conversation with the United States and others, they ought to give up their enrichment program in a verifiable fashion and we will sit down at the table with them along with our European partners and Russia as well, that's what she'll tell them," Bush said.

! فاطمه، دیگر فاطمه نیست

صدای ضجه دخترکی که جیغ می زند و نمی خواهد به زور سوار ماشین پلیس شود، بی شباهت نیست به صدای فریاد و ضجه صحنه ای از فیلم هزاردستان که در آن امنیه رضاخانی، زنی محجبه را به زور چادر از سر می کشید، با این تفاوت که در اولی تمشیت و تنبیهی در کار است و در دومی مامور می ماند و چشمان تیز و تند و عصبانی جمع که محاکمه اش می کنند و مجازاتش می کنند و محکومش می کنند.

( برای تماشای فیلم به پایان این نوشته در بخش ادامه مطلب مراجعه کنید.)

روزی را به یاد می آورم که دختران دانشکده ادبیات دانشگاه شیراز در همان سال 57، گروهی بچه تهرانی ها بودند که همه شان یک جور لباس می پوشیدند، تی شرت های آستین حلقه ای آبی آسمانی با شلوارهای لی لوله تفنگی، ده پانزده نفری می شدند و راستش را که بخواهید وقتی در حیاط دانشکده راه می رفتند، احساسی از زنده بودن و بودن و نفس کشیدن در تمام فضا احساس می شد، تا اینکه در تهران ماجرای « یاروسری یا توسری» پیش آمد و درست همان روزها بود که قرار بود از هفته ای دیگر حجاب تقریبا اجباری شود. من و یکی دو دوستی که طرفدار انقلاب و آیت الله خمینی بودیم با حسرت به دانشکده پر شر و شور و پر از زندگی شیراز نگاه می کردیم و هرچه چشم می بستیم قدرت تصور زمانی را که همه زنان در شهر مجبور شوند روسری بپوشند نداشتیم، اصلا قدرت تصورش را نداشتیم... اما برایتان داستانی را بگویم از دخترکی جوان و شوخ و شنگ که اتفاقا شیرازی نبود، رفیقی بود که هر روز می دیدمش و از قضای روزگار نه صنمی بود و نه سروقدی و نه روی چوماهی، دخترکی بود که مهندسی می خواند و خرده هوشی داشت و سر سوزن ذوقی، اهل کاشان هم نبود. فرض کن نامش شعله بود، شعله ای و آتشی و شوقی. جمعه ای بود و پنجشنبه ای که برای دو روز کوه رفتیم و از قضای روزگار، همین دکتر جعفر توفیقی وزیر هم که آن روزها دانشجو بود، همراه مان بود. این دخترک که رفیقی بود و شلوار مخمل کبریتی مد آن روزها را می پوشید و پیراهن مدل شانگهای به تن می کرد و دکمه اش را تا بالا می بست، در آن روز با ما به کوه آمد، و کوه جایی است که محمد از آن پیام می گرفت و موسی از آنجا ده فرمانش را آورد و نمی دانم حضرت عیسی پشت کوه کاری کرده بود، اما این را می دانم که اکثر علمای ما از پشت کوه آمدند. بالاخره از کوه برگشتیم و صبح زود به خوابگاه رفتیم و عصر که شد بعد از شرکت در کلاسها، رفتم به خوابگاه دانشکده پزشکی، از دور ابراهیم نامی از دوستان را دیدم که صدایم می زد و در کنارش خانمی با مقنعه و چادر و دستکش مشکی ایستاده بود، از همان جانورانی که تا آن روزها کمتر دیده بودیم. خوشم نمی آمد و رو به او هم برنگرداندم، به سوی ابراهیم نگاه کردم و حالی و احوالی، به خانم چادری اشاره کرد و گفت: نشناختیش؟ شعله است! و من برگشتم و شعله را نگاهی کردم. شعله ای که دیروز موی و رویش را می دیدیم، حالا انگار هزار سال دور شده بود، گفتم: تو چرا اینطوری شدی؟ گفت: خودم هم نمی دونم، ولی عادت می کنم، حالا همین طوری گذاشتم. در همان سالها بود که صدای حی علی الحجاب دکتر شریعتی از هر بلندگویی به گوش می رسید و هر بلندگویی دائم در حال اثبات این مدعا بود که فاطمه، فاطمه است و اشتباه نگیرید، فاطمه را با اقدس و شهناز و شهین و مهین اشتباه نگیرید، فاطمه فقط فاطمه است. انگاری که می ترسید ما عوضی به جای فاطمه سراغ گوگوش برویم.

اسم دخترش را گذاشت فاطمه، به عشق دکتر شریعتی، به عشق انقلاب، به عشق جنگ، اما فاطمه از روی متد تربیتی « فاطمه فاطمه است» بزرگ نشد، به همین دلیل وقتی پانزده ساله شد، زیر زیرکی با همه بچه های آپارتمان شان فیلم رد و بدل می کردند و دوست پسرش که می آمد، دو تا کوچه آنطرف تر، فاطمه را می دیدی که در حال دویدن است و وقتی به موتور پسرک می رسید چادر را گوله می کرد توی کیفی که همراهش بود و محکم پسرک را بغل می کرد و پشت موتور می نشست و پسرک لایی می کشید وسط ماشین ها که نکند غربتی های حزب الله گیر بدهند و ضایع بازی دربیاورند، باد می خورد توی صورت نوزده ساله فاطمه و زندگی را دوست داشت و دوست دارد و دوست دارد. پدرش چهار سالی در جبهه بوده، دو برادر مادرش در جنگ کشته شده اند، یک دائی اش در جنگ معلول شده و خانه پدربزرگ در سولقان است، جایی که اسلام محکم ایستاده است و فاطمه هم دیگر اصلا فاطمه نیست، گاهی می شود مونا و گاهی می شود چیزی دیگر، تنها چیزی که توی کتش نمی رود این است که فاطمه فاطمه است.

تو چه می گوئی رئیس؟ تو حرف حسابت چیست؟ تو که دست دختر مردم را می گیری و در حالی که او نمی خواهد سوار ماشین پلیس شود و ضجه می کشد، بزور می کشی اش داخل ماشین و بزور در را قفل می کنی و پرتش می کنی گوشه سلول که پدر و مادرش بیایند، با سندی در دست و نگاهی پر از نفرت توی صورتشان و هزار تیر زهر آلود که از چشمان برادرش یا شوهرش به سوی تو شلیک می شود، از آنها می خواهی که تعهد بدهند که دیگر دخترشان بدحجاب در شهر نمی گردد و پدر با خودش قسم خورده که اگر کلیه اش را هم بفروشد، دخترش را از این جهنم نجات می دهد و می فرستد فرنگ که دیگر گرفتار لجن هایی مثل شما نشود. و آنها هم تعهدشان را می دهند، و تو دخترک را از سلول آزاد می کنی و سعی می کنی پدرانه نصیحتش کنی، همان نصیحت هایی که به دختر خودت می کنی و تا به امروز فایده نکرده است، امشب دخترت از تو خواهد پرسید: بابا! تو هم قاطی این لجن ها بودی؟ و تو یک باره بوی لجن پر می شود زیر بینی ات. دوباره می پرسد: بابا! تو هم قاطی این لجن ها بودی؟ تو می پرسی: کدوم لجن ها؟ دخترت می گوید: همین هایی که اون دختره رو بزور سوار ماشین می کردند و اون جیغ می کشید؟ و تو می مانی که چطور همه این تصویر را دیده اند؟ تو که کاری نکردی، فقط هلش دادی تو و در را بستی و بردی به مرکز و بعد هم آزادش کردی. دخترت می گوید: بابا! خدائیش تو هم جزو همین لجن هایی؟ تو هم دخترها رو کتک می زنی؟ و تو نگاهش می کنی و به سویش می روی و بغلش می کنی و می گوئی: « بابا! به من می آد که از این کارها بکنم؟»

رئیس! من که چیزی به دخترت نخواهم گفت، اما تو خجالت نکشیدی که چنین کاری کردی؟ آی برادر جوان خنده روی عزیز! تو از روی دختر کوچک پنج ساله ات شرم نمی کنی که مادری را که می گوید دختر پنج ساله اش در مهد کودک منتظر اوست، در خیابان نگه داشتی و اشکش را درآوردی؟ خدا به آن بزرگی تمام آن بهشتی را که تو با همین طرح مقابله با بدحجابی از دستش دادی، مفت و مجانی در اختیار این مادر گذاشته بود، ان وقت تو ام القرای اسلام را برایش جهنم می کنی؟ اگر روزی دخترت از تو بپرسد که پول لباسی را که برایش خریدی از کجا آوردی، رویت می شود بگوئی از کتک زدن دختران و مادران و زنانی که هیچ جرمی نداشتند، پول درآوردی. فردا شب هم سعی می کنی در مهمانی حانه عموخان چنان وانمود کنی که تو دیگر در نیروی انتظامی نیستی و منتقل شده ای به وزارت کشور و کار ستادی می کنی. آخر مرد حسابی! جناب سرهنگ! استاد! این چه پولی است که می گیری؟ پول کتک زدن زنانی که نمی خواهند چنان لباس بپوشند که تا دیروز مجاز بود و امروز نیست؟ پول فحاشی و مزخرف گویی به زنان و دخترانی که توی کت شان نمی رود که وقتی پدرشان و برادرشان و شوهرشان کاری به لباس پوشیدن آنها ندارند، تو برای شان تعیین تکلیف کنی؟ این چه پولی است که با آن قسط خانه را می دهی و اضافه کار می گیری؟ راستی! اسم اضافه کاری که برای اینکه اشک زنان مردم را دربیاوری و با یک مشت زن نکبت بدقیافه عقده ای وسط خیابان جلوی کسانی که مثل آدم لباس پوشیدند، بگیری، چیست؟ اضافه کاری برای طرح؟ اضافه کاری برای طرح 003 ؟ یا اضافه کاری برای امر به معروف؟

من نمی فهمم این آقای موسوی اردبیلی چه می کند؟ این آقای جوادی آملی چه می کند؟ این آقای طاهری اصفهانی چه می کند؟ این آقای هاشمی و عبدالله نوری و خاتمی و کدیور و اشکوری چه می کنند؟ مگر یکی از شرایط امر به معروف و نهی از منکر کردن، داشتن و نداشتن فایده نیست؟ وقتی مرجع تقلید و مجتهد جامع الشرایط یا هر مجتهدی می بیند که 25 سال است دارند به این مردان و زنان، امر و نهی می کنند که حجاب تان را رعایت کنید و سال به سال روسری ها عقب تر می رود و آرایش زنان غلیظ تر می شود، لابد یک اشکالی وجود دارد. حداقل این است که مفید نیست. مگر امربه معروف در شرایطی که فایده ای برآن مترتب نیست ساقط نمی شود؟ مگر این بچه ها در محیط بسته و کاملا اسلامی که جلوی هر مغازه پیتزافروشی اش هم نوشته شده « رعایت حجاب الزامی است»، بزرگ نشده اند؟ مگر صدا و سیما 27 سال خواهران و برادران و زنان و شوهران و پدران و دختران را در سریال ها، آن هم در خانه، با حجاب نشان نداده اند؟ مگر نه این که این بچه ها دستاورد جمهوری اسلامی اند؟ اگر امر به معروف فایده داشت، تا به حال لااقل اثری از آن دیده می شد. وقتی امام معصوم می گوید که اگر کسی ببیند دارند خلخال، که یک وسیله آرایشی محسوب می شد، از پای زنی می کشند و از غصه نمیرد، مسلمان نیست. شما چه مسلمانی هستید که می بینید دختری را بخاطر لباسش می زنند و می کشند و می برند و عین خیال تان نیست؟ شما چه مجتهدی هستید؟ چه فایده ای دارید؟ امر به معروف با این شداد و غلاظ می شود؟ چرا کاری می کنید که هر دختربچه و پسربچه ای پایش به زندان باز شود و خود را در موقعیت روسپی و فاحشه ببیند؟ سالها بر دیوار نوشتند بی حجابی زن از بی غیرتی شوهر اوست. فکر می کنید با نوشتن این جمله ذره ای از عشق آن مرد به همسربی حجابش که دوست دارد مانتوی اجباری را با مدلی بپوشد که زیباتر می داند، داده شد؟ جز اینکه عرض دین را بردید و زحمتی چند روزه داشتید، چه فایده ای از این رفتار شداد و غلاظ بردید؟ جز اینکه مانند محسن مخملباف و مسعود ده نمکی و هزاران تن دیگر حالا اصلا مشکلی با حجاب ندارید. مشکل مردم چیست که شما همه چیز را با تاخیر می فهمید؟

آقای ناصر مکارم راست می گوید که وضع حجاب در آمریکا بهتر از ایران است. این درست است، در آمریکا زنان مجبور نیستند برای نمایش خود از همین یک وجب صورت استفاده کنند، می شوند موجودات طبیعی، سرکارشان مرتب و با لباس عادی می روند و وقت تفریح هم شاید آرایشی رقیق کنند. اما چه شده که در ایران، این همه مردم می خواهند گونه ای دیگر باشند، پسرها می خواهند شبیه کسی شوند که نیستند و دخترها می خواهند شبیه کسی باشند که با شخصیت شان فاصله دارد. در هیچ جای جهان این همه جراحی پلاستیک برای تغییر شکل صورت اتفاق نمی افتد، چرا که مردم متوجه خودشان نیستند. شما دائما به زنان می گوئید که عروسکند، مانکن هستند، کثیف و پلیدند و در حال تحریک کردن هستند. انتظار دارید یک مانکن چطور لباس بپوشد؟ انتظار دارید یک عروسک چگونه آرایش کند؟ شما هر روز به نیمی از مردم توهین می کنید و این نیم مردم هر روز به شما دهن کجی می کنند. آنان دشمن نیستند، دشمن شمائید.

می گوئید که ماهواره ها زنان و مردان را فاسد می کند. چرا این ماهواره ها در کشور خودشان این اثر را ندارند؟ چرا در تمام اروپا و آمریکا پیدا کردن زنی که هفت قلم آرایش کرده این قدر سخت است؟ اصلا کسی آرایش نمی کند. آدم ها خودشان را دوست دارند، مجبور نیستند دائما خودشان را عوض کنند. مسوول تمام فساد اخلاقی در ایران دولت و حکومت و روحانیون کشور هستند، آنان هستند که با اجبار کردن آنچه لازم نیست، کاری می کنند تا این بت عیار هر لحظه به شکلی درآید.

این سنت سی سال است که هر سال ادامه دارد، هر سال پلیس برای اینکه بودجه بیشتری بگیرد، پول تحقیر خواهر و مادر و دختر خودش را از مجلس احمقی که می داند با دادن این پول دختر و خواهرش تحقیر خواهد شد، می گیرد و مثل سگ هار به جان مردم می افتد. هر سال یک مشت تاجر فاسد بابت سازماندهی طرح حجاب و خرید بنز و لندکروزر و لباس و عینک ترسناک پورسانت می گیرند و با گرم شدن هوا به جان زنان بیچاره این مرز و بوم می افتند، تا پس از چند روز یا احتمالا چند هفته، « هاش» خون شان کم شود و صاحبان شان آنها را زنجیر کنند و تازه یادشان بیفتد که جنایت و دزدی و شرارت در کشور بیداد می کند و آنها همین یکی را که جذاب ترین نوع مبارزه است، برای جنگیدن انتخاب کرده اند. و واقعا چه لذتی دارد جنگیدن مردی با اسلحه و باتوم و کلاه با زنی که کیف رفتن به محل کار دستش است و دارد باری از روی بارهای مملکت برمی دارد، تا شما حمقا مملکت را کاملا به گه نکشید. چه افتخار و شهامتی است که چهار مرد به جان یک زن می افتند تا او را به زور سوار ماشین پلیس کنند. و چه آزادمردی است صفار هرندی که بخشنامه می کند که روزنامه ها حتی اگر دیدند که دارد ظلمی می شود، حق ندارند کلمه ای از این جور و بیداد بنویسند. واقعا شرم آور نیست، سگ های هار درنده را به جان زنان و دختران مردم رها می کنید و سنگ که نه، حتی فریاد زدنی را نیز از ملت دریغ می کنید؟

آقای سردار احمدی مقدم! هفته ای قبل مصاحبه کردید و گفتید که بدحجابی جزو پروژه براندازی نرم است. گفتید که مواد مخدر و قرص های روانگردان خطرناکند، گفتید که اشرار و قمه کشان و کسانی که برای نوامیس مردم ایجاد مشکل می کنند، خطرناکند، گفتید مصرف مشروبات الکلی غیرقابل تحمل است. گفتید و گفتید و از میان دهها عامل براندازی، پس از یک هفته تمام نیروی تان را گذاشتید برای مبارزه با زنان بدحجاب. می دانید چرا؟ برای اینکه این کار ظاهر جامعه را زودتر درست می کند و برای نیروهای انتظامی جذاب تر است، پول خوبی هم بابت آن به نیروی انتظامی می دهند، زحمت رفتن به کردستان و خراسان و بلوچستان برای مبارزه با اشرار را ندارد. بگذریم از اینکه در این مدت اشرار هم از دست شما راحت می شوند، چون مشغول مبارزه مهم تری هستید. من با شما عهد می کنم که صدای این سازی که حالا می زنید بزودی در می آید، چنان زود و سریع که خودتان زودتر از همه بساط تان را جمع کنید. دیگر مردم به پلیس مانند کسانی که حافظ جان و مال مردم هستند نگاه نمی کنند. شما نه تنها سیاست ده ساله گذشته پلیس را خراب کردید، بلکه مانند انسانی عصبی چنان رفتار کردید که بعدا مجبورید ده برابر همین باج بدهید، مجبورید بدحجابی را ده برابر همین تحمل کنید. شما تمام آرای انتخاباتی جناح طرفدار خودتان، یعنی احمدی نژاد و اصولگرایان و هر کسی که در این وضع خاموش بنشیند را از بین بردید.

روزی که نظامیان احمدی نژاد را چون دلقکی بر چوبه ای کردند تا با بازی انقلابیگری چند صباحی اصلاحگران جامعه بیمار ایران را از بالین این بیمار مشرف به موت دور کنند، گفتیم و گفتند که این مردک برای دادن پول نفت نیامده و این مردک برای مبارزه با امپریالیسم نیامده و این مردک برای مبارزه با غارتگران نفتی نیامده و این مردک برای جنگیدن با اسرائیل نیامده و این مردک برای تولید انرژی هسته ای نیامده، او آمده است تا مردمان ایران زمین را تبدیل به نکبتی چون خودش کند، او آمده است تا چادر توی صورت دخترها بکشد و زنان را وسط خیابان کتک بزند و لباس مردم کنترل کند، همان کاری که 25 سال کرده بود. احمق ها باورش کردند و گفتند، نه، چنین نیست، این بیچاره به فکر منافع ملت است. چپ های احمق پست کلنیال دل شان را خوش کردند که احمدی نژاد در کاراکاس در کنار دخترکی بی حجاب عکس گرفته و همان عکس را کردند پیراهن عثمان. گوئی که این بازی اولین بار است که می شود. استالین آمد، مدتی با روشنفکران فرانسوی و آلمانی و روسی لاس زد و بعد میلیون میلیون شان را نابود کرد. و بعد افتاد به جان ملت، در پنوم پنه ملت را به دلیل غرب زدگی می کشتند، در عراق بدلیل مخالفت با قائد اعظم، در روآندا به دلیل اینکه دماغ شان پهن بود و در ایران گروهی عقب مانده می خواهند چیزی را که خودشان هم باور ندارند، به زور اسلحه توی کله مردم فرو کنند. چه شد آن وعده و وعید رئیس جمهور که گفت: « ما نمی خواهیم جلوی لباس پوشیدن زنان و جوانان را بگیریم»؟ چه شد آن وعده انتخاباتی مشاور رئیس جمهور که گفته بود: « از راه دور دست هنرمندان لس آنجلسی را هم می بوسیم، بخصوص خانم های شان؟» خرشان از پل پیروزی گذشت و بوی گند پس مانده شان در هوا پیچید.

آقای احمدی نژاد! با همین تصویری که از ایران ساختید، می خواهید سازمان ملل را و آمریکا را اصلاح کنید؟ با همین تصویر کتک زدن زنان می خواهید به داد خانواده های آمریکایی برسید؟ با همین ضجه ای که از پایتخت ام القرای اسلام بلند است، می خواهید به فریاد مظلومان جهان برسید؟ چه کسی در کجا، مظلوم تر از کسی است که زیر پای شما دارد لگد می خورد؟ یک مشت دهاتی عوضی آدم ندیده را از پشت کوه برداشتید آوردید به شهر، هنوز بوی پهن ماچه خر همسایه زیر دماغش مانده، طبیعی است که بوی عطر زنانه آنان را عصبی و روانی می کند. سفره نفتی کجاست؟ غارتگران بیت المال کجا رفتند؟ سانتریفیوژ های تان کی ما را غنی می کند؟ بوشهر چه زمانی افتتاح می شود؟ به میلیون ها نامه درخواست کار کی قرار است پاسخ دهید؟ کم دردسر درست کرده بودید، این هم اضافه شد. این نمره صفر درس اخلاق تان، اقتصاد را که تک ماده کردید، ریاضی را که با آن آمارهای تان زیر ده گیر کردید، در نقاشی تان که از کشیدن یک چشم انداز عقبید، در تاریخ که درس ترکمانچای و گلستانچای را نخوانده اید، آقای دانشمند! علم را برای چه می خواهید؟ برای زدن توی سر مردم؟ این که دیگر علم نمی خواهد، یک چوب می خواهد که سردار احمدی مقدم به تعداد کافی از آن دارد. از شما می پرسم، از نظر خودتان چند درصد دانشمندان اتمی کشور یا خودشان یا خواهر و مادرشان یا همسرشان مشمول طرح بدحجابی نمی شوند؟ در تمام دانشمندان زن امروز ایران، کدام یکی را پیدا می کنید که شامل تعریف شما از زن محجبه بشود؟ با چه کسانی می خواهید جهان را مدیریت کنید؟ با دیوانه روانی ای مثل فاطمه رجبی که پدرش و برادرش او را عصبی می دانند می خواهید مصداق بارز زن مسلمان بسازید؟ شما فکر می کنید پس از این غائله حجاب در تمام جهان هیچ چپی حاضر است در کنار یک وحشی که به زنان مردم حمله می کند بایستد؟ مثل گاو نه من شیر تمام دروغ های دو ساله را که در سطل سوابق قهرمانی دنیای عرب داشتید، با یک لگد ریختید زمین. حالا دیگر جرات می کنید به خبرنگاران خارجی بگوئید که بین دولت و ملت شکافی نیست و اگر می خواهند دلیل پیدا کنند، به خیابان بروند؟ البته اگر خود آن خبرنگار را برادران دستگیر نکنند و به عنوان بدحجاب به زندان نبرند.



آقایان! ملت ایران نمی تواند موضوعی به نام حجاب اجباری را بپذیرد، نه اجباری برداشتن آن را می پذیرفت و نه اجباری نگه داشتن آن را می پذیرد، این گروهی که نمی توانند این وضع را رعایت کنند، حداقل نیمی از جامعه ایرانند، شما اگر از نیمی از جامعه ایران متنفرید، مثل خیلی از مردمانی که از دیدن مردم شاد و سرخوش رنج می کشند، می توانید به روستاها پناه ببرید، یا از خانه خارج نشوید، اما یادتان باشد که این رشته حجاب 27 سال است که هر سال در همین روزها تکرار می شود و روزی دیگر یا ماهی دیگر، ماجرا خاتمه می یابد و شما می مانید و شرمساری و خجلتی بخاطر آنچه در این بازی به باد دادید.


رسید مژده که ایام غم نخواهد ماند
چنین نماند، چنین نیز هم نخواهد ماند
من ار چه در نظر یار خاکسار شدم
رقیب نیز چنین محترم نخواهد ماند
چو پرده دار به شمشیر می زند همه را
کسی مقیم حریم حرم نخواهد ماند
چه جای شکر و شکایت ز نقش نیک و بدست
چو بر صحیفه هستی رقم نخواهد ماند
غنیمتی شمر ای شمع وصل پروانه
که این معامله تا صبحدم نخواهد ماند
ز مهربانی جانان طمع مبر حافظ
که نقش جور و نشان ستم نخواهد مان

Sen. Mike Gravel at SC Debates 04/26/07

Iran pursues diplomacy, Israel threatens military action

Adam Robertson

As the European Union resumes diplomatic talks with Iran, urging the United States to follow suit and stressing that the Iranians are ready for such negotiations, Israel is recommending ways to destroy Tehran’s nuclear installations.

"It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview with Germany's Focus magazine. "It's technically feasible. It would require 10 days and the launch of a thousand Tomahawk missiles," he said in the interview, due to be published on Monday.

Olmert also said that "nobody could exclude" military action against Iran, echoing a position long held by the U.S., which doesn’t want to negotiate with Tehran unless it suspends its uranium enrichment program, a demand Tehran refuses to meet despite being slapped with two sets of UN sanctions.

Olmert’s suggestion that a rain of missile could degrade Iran’s nuclear program came as the EU’s foreign police Javeir Solana ended two days of talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. After the talks, which have been described as constructive, Solana demanded Washington to open direct negotiations with Tehran, stressing that Iranian officials are ready for such unconditional talks.

"We have always said we are ready for talks if they have something new to say. We are fully prepared for talks without preconditions to reach a solution," Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier this month.

But Olmert’s threat of military action against Tehran could hinder Iran and the EU’s diplomatic efforts.

Iranian authorities, who insist that Tehran’s nuclear plans are strictly peaceful, immediately described Olmert's warning as empty “bravado.”

"If the United States and Israel commit such a mistake, they know better than anybody what the consequences will be for themselves,” said the head of Iran’s parliamentary foreign affairs commission, Alladin Borojerdy, according to the state-run news agency Isna.

Borojerdy added that the head of the UN nuclear watchdog "Muhammad El-Baradei has stated that Iran's nuclear science cannot be destroyed by missile strikes ... because the science is national."

The science indeed could not be destroyed. But Olmert’s recent warning raises fears that Israel and the United States are preparing plans for a military strike against Iran, a move that military experts say could be disastrous for a region already suffering from two U.S.-led initiated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a report, the Oxford Research Group suggested last month that pre-emptive air strikes, like those reportedly being considered by the U.S. and Israel, would harden Iranian attitudes and political resistance to outside pressure to stop uranium enrichment. "Armed attacks on Iran would very likely lead to the result they were meant to avoid -- the building of nuclear weapons within a few years,” said the report, backed by the former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Hans Blix.

Another fact usually ignored by supporters of military action against Iran is that many of Tehran’s nuclear facilities are believed to be deep underground, in reinforced bunkers difficult to destroy with conventional weapons. Using thousands of missiles, as suggested by Olmert, could result in a high number of civilian casualties, as a surprise attack would inevitably catch many people unprotected, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians in another conflict that could still be resolved through diplomacy.

How Rice Plans to Tackle Iran

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice never once used the word "isolate" in connection with Iran during her three appareances on Sunday political talk shows. That may be some kind of a record, since Rice rarely misses an opportunity to call for isolating Tehran until it abandons its uranium-enrichment activities and its support for radical groups in the Middle East. But it would be hard for Rice to demand the isolation of Iran when, in a dramatic course correction approved by President Bush, the Secretary of State plans to sit across a table with her Iranian counterpart, Manoucher Mottaki, at a conclave of Middle Eastern foreign ministers focused on stabilizing Iraq.

In fact, at some point during the so-called "neighbor's conference" convened by the Iraqi government and held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Rice may even go so far as meeting one-on-one with Mottaki. "I wouldn't rule it out," she told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "because this is not a meeting about the United States and Iran; this is a meeting about Iraq and about what Iraq's neighbors and interested parties can do to help stabilize the situation in Iraq."

The change of tack by the Bush Administration may reflect the mixed results of its efforts to isolate Iran: On the one hand, the U.S. has managed to overcome Russian and Chinese objections to secure two important UN Security Council sanctions resolutions turning up the heat on Iran, and it has managed to constrict Iran's access to global capital markets. But despite the pressure, none of these actions has prompted Tehran to change course. And many of the governments on which the U.S. would rely to implement an isolation strategy — friendly Arab leaders and the Europeans — have strongly echoed calls by the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group for the U.S. to engage directly with Tehran.

Not that the Sharm el-Sheikh encounter presages a thaw in US-Iranian relations: Rice sees the step as necessitated by tactical flexibility, but she holds fast to the Bush Administration view that Iran is the engine of much of the violence and chaos in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. As she tells it, the encounter in Sharm will be more of a lecture than an exchange, with the U.S. berating Iran over arms and fighters crossing into Iraq, the actions of militias and so on. Iran is not likely to be moved by those charges, which it routinely denies, and nor does it accept lectures from U.S. leaders.

Even if the two sides remain at loggerheads, U.S. officials believe the encounter is an opportunity to "put the Iranians on the record, at the ministerial level, that they are making commitments to the Iraqis to help solve their problems." Washington hopes that if Iran makes security commitments to Iraq's government and the governments of the region, the onus will be on Tehran to curb its covert meddling and make a positive contribution. Such engagement is premised less on the idea that more radical elements in Iran's leadership will change their ways, than on the prospects for a more pragmatic outlook in Tehran. "It's not a matter of looking for moderates in Iran," Rice said recently. "I don't think there are any in this regime; but it is a matter of looking for reasonable people who might want to have a different course."

The Iranians will bring complaints of their own to Sharm el-Sheikh, and insist that Iraq's security crisis can't be resolved while U.S. forces remain in the country. If Rice is hoping that influential Arab moderates will echo the U.S. position, she may be disappointed. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who earlier this year denounced the U.S. occupation of Iraq as "illegitimate," recently turned down a request from Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to meet in Saudi Arabia before the Sharm conference. "The Saudi king's schedule was not suitable for the timing," Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said on CNN Sunday.

U.S. April death toll in Iraq passes 100

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Five U.S. troops were killed over the weekend in Iraq, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll for April past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces this year.

A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up during a Shiite funeral in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the deadliest in a series of attacks that killed at least 51 people nationwide.

The bomber detonated his explosives about 6:30 p.m. inside a tent where mourners were gathered in Khalis, a flashpoint Shiite enclave in Diyala province, where U.S.-Iraqi forces have seen fierce fighting with Sunni and Shiite militants.

At least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded in the blast, which occurred four days after a suicide car bomber killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in the city, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for that attack in an area where Sunni Arab insurgents are thought to have fled to escape the security crackdown in Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi troops launched Feb. 14.

The killings of the Americans came as U.S. troops have been increasingly deployed on the streets of Baghdad and housed with Iraqi troops in joint security operations away from their heavily fortified bases, raising their vulnerability to attacks.

Three American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb while on a combat patrol Sunday in eastern Baghdad, the military said. A U.S. soldier was slain Saturday by small arms fire in the same part of the city — a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations as part of the nearly 11-week-old operation to quell sectarian violence.

A Marine also was killed Sunday in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, the military said.

An al-Qaida-linked group vowed Monday to pursue a "long-term war of attrition" in Anbar against U.S. forces and an alliance of Sunni tribal leaders who have turned against the terror network.

Underscoring the threat, a tanker truck exploded near a restaurant just west of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, killing four people and wounding six, police said.

U.S.-backed Sunni sheiks and tribal leaders have begun turning against al-Qaida in Anbar, forming the Anbar Salvation Council. That has helped reduce violence in Ramadi and elsewhere, but has triggered clashes for control of the vast desert area that borders Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes al-Qaida, warned militants were developing long-term plans and tactics for a "long-term war of attrition" against the Americans, in a statement posted on a militant Web site.

"The Marines do not confront the militants face-to-face, but they hide themselves behind thieves and highway robbers," the group said in an apparent reference to the tribal alliance. "The mujahedeen are ongoing in their fights against the enemies of God."

Bombings, shootings and mortar attacks struck a series of other targets Monday, including a car bomb that exploded just before 5 p.m. in a residential area in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing five civilians and wounding 10, police said.

Another car bomb struck a commercial area at about the same time in the eastern Baghdad area of Talibiyah, killing two civilians and wounding eight, police said.

Hours earlier after a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi checkpoint as he emerged from an underpass in a predominantly Sunni area in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.

The blast, which occurred at 10 a.m. at an Interior Ministry checkpoint in Nisour Square in the Harthiyah neighborhood, caused part of the road to buckle and destroyed the underpass, killing the two commandos and two civilians.

On Sunday, Iran agreed to join the U.S. and other countries at a conference on Iraq this week, raising hopes the government in Tehran would help stabilize its neighbor and stem the flow of guns and bombs over the border.

Senior Iranian envoy Ali Larijani flew to Baghdad on Sunday for talks with Iraqi leaders ahead of this week's meetings in Egypt — the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

Larijani met Monday with Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and offered Iranian support for the Iraqi government, saying "we see that Iraq's territories and unity must be preserved."

Zebari stressed the importance of the meetings Thursday and Friday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

"It is true that it aims to help the Iraqi government in improving security and stability, but it also has regional and international dimensions. It is in Iraq's interest that the atmosphere be good," Zebari said.

The U.S. deaths raised to at least 104 American troops who have died in Iraq as April draws to a close, the deadliest month since December, when 112 Americans died. The U.S. monthly death toll has topped 100 five other times since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count based on military figures.

At least 3,351 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started, according to the AP count.

President Bush has committed some 30,000 extra American troops to the security operation in Baghdad, but he is facing legislation by the Democratic-led Congress calling for the Americans to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1. Bush has promised to veto the measure.

It also has been the deadliest month for British forces in Iraq since the first month of the war. The 11 British troops deaths reported this month is surpassed only by 27 who died in March 2003, reflecting increasing violence in southern Iraq where they are based, particularly among Shiite groups vying for influence as Britain prepares to reduce its forces.

The area is mainly Shiite and rarely sees the car bombs usually blamed on Sunni insurgents, although rival Shiite militias frequently clash and stage attacks.

On Monday, Iraqi commandos detained a suspected Shiite militia leader linked to death squad activities in the Basra area, according to a U.S. military statement.

The U.S. military also said a joint American-Iraqi raid Sunday was aimed at capturing "high-value individuals" in Baghdad's heavily Shiite district of Kazimiyah and the resulting clash killed one Iraqi soldier and eight gunmen.

Iraqi police in the area said the raid targeted a local office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and guards had clashed with the troops. The U.S. statement said none of the individuals targeted by the raid were captured.

Hundreds of Shiites waving Iraqi flags and posters of al-Sadr and his late father rallied Monday outside a revered Shiite mosque in Kazimiyah to protest the raid as funerals were held for those killed.

In northern Iraq, a parked car bomb struck a police patrol in the Raas al-Jada, a mainly Sunni Arab area in Mosul, killing one policeman and wounding two others, police Brig. Gen. Mohammed Idan al-Jubouri said.

The attack occurred at 8 a.m., about four hours after some 50 gunmen attacked a police station in the same area, prompting a firefight and clashes as police chased the gunmen through the narrow streets. Four of the gunmen were killed and two others detained, while one policeman was wounded, police said.

In other violence reported by police:

• Mortar attacks targeting a residential area and a coffee shop killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 in northeastern Baghdad.

• A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded two others in the Baiyaa area in Baghdad.

• Gunmen killed a retired brigadier from Saddam Hussein's former army as he was driving in southwestern Baghdad.

• A member of the main Kurdish political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was shot to death in a drive-by shooting near Mosul.

• At least eight bullet-riddled bodies, many bearing signs of torture, also were found in different cities, including the body of another Kurdish Democratic Party member who had been kidnapped last week in Mosul.

Masses protest against Turkish candidate

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

ISTANBUL, Turkey - At least 700,000 people marched Sunday in a massive protest against the possible election of an observant Muslim as president, a conflict that is pitting Turkey's religiously oriented ruling party against the deeply secular military and civilian establishment.

Waving the country's red flag and singing nationalist songs, demonstrators in Istanbul demanded the resignation of the pro-Islamic government, calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a traitor. Erdogan's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, is widely expected to win the presidential election by the country's 550-seat parliament.

"We don't want a covered woman in Ataturk's presidential palace," protester Ayse Bari, a 67-year-old housewife, said in reference to Gul's wife Hayrunisaah who wears the Muslim headscarf. "We want civilized, modern people there."

The election has reignited a conflict over Turkey's national identity that has brewed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, an army officer in World War I, founded the secular republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He gave the vote to women, restricted Islamic dress and replaced the Arabic script with the Roman alphabet.

But Islam remained potent at the grassroots level, and some leaders with a religious background have portrayed themselves as an alternative to the secular establishment.

Many, including powerful generals, fear Gul would use the presidency — a post with veto power over legislation — to assist his ally, Erdogan, in chipping away at the separation of state and religion. For example, secularists want to preserve a ban on Islamic headscarves in government offices and other public places; Gul's wife once appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for the right to wear the scarf to a university.

The military hinted it may step in to resolve the deadlock over Gul in parliament. And many Turks are calling for early elections in the hope of replacing the parliament, which is dominated by Gul's pro-Islamic ruling party.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" shouted thousands of protesters, many of whom traveled to Istanbul from across the country overnight.

Turkish police estimated their numbers at about 700,000 and cordoned off the protest area, conducting searches at several entry points.

More than 300,000 took part in a similar rally in the capital Ankara two weeks ago.

"This government is the enemy of Ataturk," said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired government employee among the demonstrators on Sunday. "It wants to drag Turkey to the dark ages."

On Friday, Gul failed to win a first round of voting in parliament after opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote. The opposition then appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul the result on grounds that there was not a quorum present at the time of the vote. That night, the military threatened to intervene in the election and warned the government to curb Islamic influences.

"It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism," the military said in a statement. "When necessary, they will display its stance and attitudes very clearly. No one should doubt that."

A day later, the government, showing confidence unknown in past civilian administrations, rebuked the military and said it was "unthinkable" for the institution to challenge its political leaders in a democracy.

But Gul was not swayed by the threat.

"It is out of the question to withdraw my candidacy," he said Sunday.

The current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is a strong secularist who acted as a check on the pro-Islamic government.

A decade ago, the Turkish military sent tanks into the streets in a campaign that forced the pro-Islamic prime minister to resign. Now Turks are wondering again how far the armed forces will go to settle another power struggle between their government and the secular establishment.

The military's threat to intervene in a disputed election could also damage Turkey's troubled efforts to join the European Union, which has urged the Muslim nation to reduce the political influence of the army.

"We hope that one day Turkey can join the European Union, but for that, Turkey has to be a real European country, in economic and political terms," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Much has changed since Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan resigned on July 18, 1997, ceding power to a pro-Western coalition partner in what was labeled a "soft" coup. Under the current government, Turkey has reined in inflation and implemented reforms backed by the EU.

These ingredients, signs of a maturing democracy, suggest the military would be very reluctant to topple the elected government of Erdogan, a drastic step that could represent a return to a chaotic, polarized era that most Turks would rather forget. Yet, if it feels pushed, few doubt that the military will challenge the politicians.

The court's ruling on whether a quorum was present at the vote on Friday is expected soon. A ruling for the government could lead to a second round of voting on Wednesday. Gul is the only candidate and is expected to prevail by a third round planned for May 9. A ruling for the opposition would stop the vote, possibly leading to early general elections.

_____

Associated Press writers Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.

Iran to join U.S. at conference on Iraq

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Iran agreed Sunday to join the U.S. and other countries at a conference on Iraq this week, raising hopes the government in Tehran would help stabilize its violent neighbor and stem the flow of guns and bombs over the border.

In an apparent effort to drive home that point, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told an Iranian envoy that the persistent violence in Iraq — some of it carried out by the Shiite militias Iran is accused of arming — could spill over into neighboring countries, including those that are "supposed to support the Iraqi government."

Iraq's other neighbors as well as Egypt, Bahrain and representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members have agreed to attend the meeting Thursday and Friday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik.

The conference will also include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, raising the possibility of a rare direct encounter between high-level U.S. and Iranian officials.

In Washington, Rice would not rule out a meeting with the Iranians, whose delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"But what do we need to do? It's quite obvious. Stop the flow of arms to foreign fighters. Stop the flow of foreign fighters across the borders," Rice told ABC's "This Week."

Hours earlier, al-Maliki's office announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had telephoned to say a delegation from his country would attend the conference.

Iraqi leaders had been pressing for the Iranians to attend the Egypt meeting for weeks, but Iran refused to commit, in part because of fears that it would come under pressure from the U.S. and others about its nuclear program.

In addition, the Iranians have been lobbying for release of five Iranians held by the U.S. in Iraq since January. The U.S. has accused the five of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit that arms and trains Shiite extremists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The decision to attend "came after consultations between Iraqi officials and the Iranian president," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in an interview with Iranian state television.

Senior Iranian envoy Ali Larijani flew to Baghdad on Sunday for talks with al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials — the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

During their meeting, Larijani told al-Maliki that all countries that want stability in the region "have no choice but to support Iraq's elected government."

Al-Maliki replied that terrorist attacks in Iraq would hurt all countries in the region, "including those that are supposed to support the Iraqi government," according to a statement by the prime minister's office. Although al-Maliki did not refer to specific terror groups, it appeared that his remarks were not limited to Sunni insurgents but included Shiite extremists, as well.

On Sunday, U.S. troops in Baghdad clashed with Shiite gunmen in north Baghdad, police said. There was no report on casualties but police said several gunmen were arrested.

In Tehran, the head of the Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroojerdi, also said Iran's failure to participate in Sharm el-Sheik would lay the Islamic republic open to criticism from the United States.

"Iran should attend the conference, actively and powerfully," Boroojerdi was quoted as saying by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Apart from security issues, the U.S. and Iraq hope the conference will produce an agreement to forgive Iraq's huge debts and offer financial assistance in return for an Iraqi pledge to implement political and economic reforms.

But Iraq's Arab neighbors are expected to demand that the Baghdad government, dominated by Shiites and Kurds, do more to reach out to its own disgruntled Sunni Arabs before they pledge substantial aid.

On Sunday, President Bush called Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, to discuss the importance of the reconciliation process and the need for all Iraqi parties to work together to stabilize the country, according to Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

The Iraqis, for their part, were anxious for the Iranians to attend to give them leverage against their Sunni-dominated neighbors and to help press their case that Sunni extremists, including al-Qaida, pose the gravest threat to stability.

Underscoring the threat, Iraqi police reported at least 52 people were killed or found dead Sunday, a relatively low figure in recent weeks.

They included five people killed in a car bombing in the southern city of Basra and 10 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in various parts of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Separately, Britain said one of its soldiers was shot to death Sunday while on patrol in Basra. The death brings to 146 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion — 12 of them this month.

In Baghdad, U.S. forces fired an artillery barrage in southern Baghdad Sunday morning, rocking the capital with loud explosions.

The size and the pattern of the explosions, which began after 9 a.m. and lasted for at least 15 minutes, suggested they were directed at Sunni militant neighborhoods along the city's southern rim. Such blasts are common in the evening but are rare at that time of day.

In a brief statement to The Associated Press, the U.S. military said it fired the artillery from a forward operating base near Iraq's Rasheed military base southeast of Baghdad, but provided no other details.

American troops also detained 72 suspected insurgents and seized nitric acid and other bomb-making materials during raids on Sunday targeting al-Qaida in Iraq in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, and Salahuddin province, a volatile Sunni area northwest of the capital, the U.S. military said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, the death toll from a suicide car bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala rose to 68 as residents dug through the debris of heavily damaged shops.

Iraqis welcome U.S. Congress vote but fear vacuum

By Mussab Al-Khairalla Fri Apr 27,

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis are glad U.S. soldiers could soon depart but fearful of what they might leave behind, after the U.S. Congress approved a bill linking troop withdrawals to war funding.


"U.S. forces have to leave Iraq but not now," said Abu Ali, a 47-year-old trader from the southern city of Basra, on Friday.

"The Iraqi government and its security forces are unable to control security, especially in Baghdad and its neighborhoods."

Like many, he said tying funding to a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops over the next 11 months would force Iraq's police and army units to shape up quicker.

"We demand a withdrawal but not in one go, so that there is no vacuum," said Tarek Qader, a 55-year-old retiree from the northern city of Kirkuk.

Added Baghdad student Ali Adel: "The exit of the occupation has to be preceded by the building of Iraqi forces and national reconciliation."

In a rebuke to President George W. Bush, the Democrat- controlled Congress on Thursday approved legislation linking withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq to paying for the war.

Bush has promised to veto the bill. He is sending an additional 30,000 soldiers to Iraq, mainly to back a security crackdown in Baghdad that is regarded as a last-ditch attempt to drag Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war.

The Senate joined the House of Representatives in backing the bill that would provide about $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year while setting a deadline to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq over the next 11 months.

"I'm glad some Americans have finally realized they are no longer welcome here," said Hakim, a 25-year-old army officer in Baghdad who declined to give his last name.

SPEED UP RECONCILIATION

U.S. officials regard the Baghdad security plan as a chance to buy time for Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to speed up reconciliation with minority Sunni Arabs, who feel marginalized.

Maliki insists no timetable will be set for withdrawing the 150,000 American troops until his own security forces are ready.

"There has to be an agreement on the shape of the political map for Iraq after the U.S. forces' withdrawal since there are many pending issues ... it will result in the division of Iraq," said Abdullah Khaled from Kirkuk.

Some Iraqis said a quick withdrawal would be dangerous. "I would expect a power struggle and the increase of violence," said Mohammed Younis, a 43-year-old engineer.

Fellow Baghdadi Bassim Abdulla agreed. "Differences in Washington will encourage militants to increase their attacks after they realize Bush has lost domestic support for the war."

"The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq without ensuring Iraqi troops can provide and maintain security will result in massacres and a humanitarian disaster," said Omar al-Dulaimi, from Ramadi, in the volatile western Anbar province.

Others felt the presence of U.S. troops was fuelling the insurgency and their departure could only help.

"If the occupation leaves, all acts of violence in Iraq will end due to less suicide bombers, and the interference of neighboring countries will be unjustified," said Qassim Uthman, a 51-year-old teacher.

(Additional reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and Aref Mohammed in Basra)

9 U.S. troops die in Iraq battle, blasts

An Iraqi girl gets a close look at an Iraqi National Guardsman patrolling Haifa Street in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 7, 2005. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
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By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala as the streets were packed with people heading for evening prayers, killing at least 58 and wounding scores near some of the country's most sacred shrines. Separately, the U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American troops, including three killed Saturday in a single roadside bombing outside Baghdad.

With black smoke clogging the skies above Karbala, angry crowds hurled stones at police and later stormed the provincial governor's house, accusing authorities of failing to protect them from the unrelenting bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents. It was the second car bomb to strike the city's central area in two weeks.

Near the blast site, survivors frantically searched for missing relatives. Iraqi television showed one man carrying the charred body of a small girl above his head as he ran down the street while ambulances rushed to retrieve the wounded and firefighters sprayed water at fires in the wreckage, leaving pools of bloody water.

The Americans killed in Iraq included five who died in fighting Friday in Anbar province, three killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside bombing south of the capital.

The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died this month and at least 3,346 who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The blast took place about 7 p.m. in a crowded commercial area near the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein, major Shiite saints.

Security officials said the car packed with explosives was parked near a cement barrier intended to keep traffic away from the shrines, which draw thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iran and other countries.

That suggested the attack, which occurred two weeks after 47 people were killed and 224 were wounded in a car bombing in the same area on April 14, was aimed at killing as many Shiite worshippers as possible.

Salim Kazim, the head of the health department in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, said 58 people were killed and 168 wounded. The figures were confirmed by Abdul-Al al-Yassiri, the head of Karbala's provincial council.

"I did not expect this explosion because I thought the place was well protected by the police," said Qassim Hassan, a clothing merchant who was injured by the blast. "I demand a trial for the people in charge of the security in Karbala."

Hassan, who spoke to a reporter from his hospital bed, said his brother and a cousin were still missing.

"I regret that I voted for those traitors who only care about their posts, not the people who voted for them," he said.

The U.S. military has warned that such bombings were intended to provoke retaliatory violence by Shiite militias, whose members have largely complied with political pressure to avoid confrontations with Americans during the U.S. troop buildup.

The radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a strong attack earlier Saturday on President Bush, calling him the "greatest evil" for refusing to withdraw American troops from Iraq.

Al-Sadr's statement was read during a parliament session by his cousin, Liqaa al-Yassin, after Congress ordered U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by Oct. 1. Bush pledged to veto the measure and neither the House nor the Senate had enough votes to override him.

"Here are the Democrats calling you to withdraw or even set a timetable and you are not responding," al-Sadr's statement said. "It is not only them who are calling for this but also Republicans, to whom you belong."

"If you are ignoring your friends and partners, then it is no wonder that you ignore the international and Iraqi points of view," he added.

Al-Sadr led two armed uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, and his Mahdi militia is believed responsible for much of Iraq's sectarian killing. The U.S. military says he has fled to Iran, although his followers insist he is hiding in Iraq. Abdul-Al al-Yassiri, the head of the Karbala provincial council, said local authorities had raised fears that militants fleeing the Baghdad security crackdown were infiltrating their area.

"We have contacted the interior minister and asked them to supply us with equipment that can detect explosives," he said.

Ali Mohammed, 31, who sells prayer beads in the area, said he heard the blast and felt himself hurled into the air.

"The next thing I knew I opened my eyes in the hospital with my legs and chest burned," he said. "This is a disaster. What is the guilt of the children and women killed today by this terrorist attack?"

Crowds stormed the provincial government offices and the governor's house, burning part of it along with three cars and scuffling with guards. Security forces detained several armed protesters, said Ghalib al-Daami, a provincial council member.

Saturday's bombing was the deadliest attack in Iraq since April 18, when 127 people were killed in a car bombing near the Sadriyah market in Baghdad — one of four bombings that killed a total of 183 people in the bloodiest day since a U.S.-Iraq security operation began in the capital more than 10 weeks ago.

In all, at least 119 people were killed or found dead, including the bodies of 38 people killed execution-style — apparent victims of the so-called sectarian death squads mostly run by Shiite militias.

In Baghdad, a mortar attack killed two people and wounded seven in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, where the U.S. military recently announced it was building a three-mile long, 12-foot high concrete wall despite protests from residents and Sunni politicians that they were being isolated.

The U.S. military also said Saturday that a suicide truck bomber attacked the home of a city police chief the day before in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing nine Iraqi security forces and six civilians. Police chief Hamid Ibrahim al-Numrawi and his family escaped injury after Iraqi forces opened fire on the truck before it reached the concrete barrier outside the home in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad.

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Baird rejects Gore's criticism of Tory green plan

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, now one of the world's most famous climate-change activists, has called the federal government's new green plan "a fraud."

Gore criticized the plan while in Toronto on Saturday to attend the Green Living Show and screen his Oscar-winning documentary on the environment, An Inconvenient Truth.

Conservative Environment Minister John Baird promptly shot back, saying Gore didn't do nearly as much to fight climate change during eight years in office.

"The fact is our plan is vastly tougher than any measures introduced by the administration of which the former vice-president was a member," Baird said in news release.

Gore was vice-president from 1993 to 2001 when Bill Clinton was president.

Baird also said it was "regrettable" that Gore spoke without having been briefed on the Conservative plan.

The Conservatives have said their strategy, introduced earlier in the week, will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and improve air quality, but Gore said he has heard it all before, south of the border, and he doesn't like what he hears.

"I'm hearing a reduction in intensity is going to be presented to the Canadian people as a legitimate policy," he said at the consumer environmental show. "In my opinion, it is a complete and total fraud. It is designed to mislead the Canadian people."

A reduction in intensity means that big industrial emitters of greenhouse gases will have to reduce emissions for each unit of output, but total output could increase.

Former U.S. vice-president supports Suzuki

Gore said the rest of the world looks to Canada for moral leadership, and that's why news of the plan was so "shocking."

Gore also praised one of Canada's best-known environmentalists, David Suzuki, for confronting Baird on Friday, the first day of the three-day Green Living Show.

Suzuki told Baird his plan was a disappointment and doesn't go far enough.

The government is creating the illusion of attacking the problem by talking about reducing intensity, but "the reality is it's really a cover for allowing industry to increase its pollution," he said.

The Conservative plan calls for Canadian reductions of current greenhouse gas emissions by 150 million tonnes by 2020. Most industries will have to reduce greenhouse gases by 18 per cent by 2010.

Canada produced about 775 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2004, a government website says. The Kyoto target is 563 million tonnes.

German weekly: Olmert believes 1,000 missiles will hurt Iran nukes; PMO denies

By Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters

The Prime Minister's Office yesterday denied that Ehud Olmert had told a German magazine Iran's disputed nuclear program could be severely hit by firing 1,000 cruise missiles during a 10-day attack. The weekly news magazine Focus said its reporter, Amir Taheri, asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in an interview whether military action would be an option if Iran continued to defy the United Nations. It quoted Olmert as responding: "Nobody is ruling it out. "It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years," Focus quoted Olmert as saying. "It would take 10 days and would involve the firing of 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles," it quoted him as saying.

Advertisement Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisen, said the prime minister had spoken to the author of the Focus article, but she said Olmert did not make the comments that were attributed to him. Eisen said the meeting was not an interview and was conducted for background purposes, on the understanding that it would not be used. However, Taheri said, "It was clear to all sides that this was an interview." He said he had not recorded the conversation, but had taken notes during and after the encounter. "Olmert's bureau recorded the meeting," he said. Taheri stood by his interview but clarified that the prime minister was not threatening Iran, but rather discussing a theoretical possibility only. Taheri said he was sorry about the media storm over the article, and he had instructed the magazine to remove the summary of the interview from its Internet site because "it was sensationalist and took Olmert's statements - which were mentioned in passing - out of context." Taheri said the Internet edition had published only part of Olmert's statements. Ulrich Schmidla, a foreign affairs editor at Focus magazine, said the interview would be published in full and with no changes, with Taheri's approval, in tomorrow's issue. Taheri, a freelance reporter, was a regular contributor to Focus, he added. Schmidla also said, "The reason we took the article off the Web site is because it focused unfairly on the military option, although Olmert had stressed the importance of negotiations." Alaeddin Broujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, dismissed Olmert's reported comments. "Naturally this bragging by Olmert is not something that can actually take place in practice," Broujerdi was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. "If America and Israel ever made such a mistake, they know better than anyone else what the consequences would be." Focus quoted Olmert as saying UN sanctions should be given a chance to work before military action was considered. "We must give the (UN) process time to take effect," it quoted him as saying. "We have no intention of attacking Iran at the moment." Olmert was also quoted as saying he doubted whether Iran's nuclear program was as far advanced as Tehran said. "I don't think that Iran is about to cross the nuclear technology threshold as its leaders claim," he was quoted as saying. "We still have time to stop them." Taheri, an Iranian exile living in Europe, is known as a harsh critic of the regime in Tehran. Last year the Canadian National Post had to publish a retraction of a mistake based on an article by Taheri stating that the Iranian Parliament had passed a law requiring Jews to wear a yellow star.

Top EU official urges U.S.-Iran talks

By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 27,

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The top EU foreign policy official urged the United States Friday to engage Iran in direct negotiations about its nuclear program and other issues to try to stabilize the Middle East.


Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security affairs chief, told an annual trans-Atlantic security conference he came away from two days of talks in Ankara with Iran's top nuclear negotiator this week believing that Ali Khameini, Iran's spiritual leader, was ready for direct talks with Washington.

"The United States must engage" with Iran, said Solana, who is to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in Washington on Monday.

He said Washington's hostility toward Tehran only served to reinforce "a situation in which Iran is considered as a country that cannot be organized into some sort of dialogue."

On Thursday, Solana completed two days of talks with Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator. Solana was acting on behalf of the international community, which is demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of economic and political inducements, including help in developing a peaceful nuclear energy program.

Both Solana and Larijani spoke of some progress toward "a united view" on how to break a deadlock over Tehran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment.

Speaking at the same session of the Brussels Forum, a security conference of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Daniel Fried, an assistant U.S. secretary of state, said Washington had tried to reach out to Tehran to no avail.

"So we are stuck," Fried said at the post-dinner session attended by several hundred politicians, diplomats and security experts from both sides of the Atlantic.

Solana urged Washington to recognize that Iran cannot be ignored as a key player in stabilizing the turbulent Middle East.

"It is very difficult to try to find (peace in the Middle East) that is meaningful and balanced" without the help of the government in Tehran.

Solana and Larijani held only preliminary discussions in Ankara meant to establish if there is enough common ground for further talks between the two men that could lead to the resumption of formal nuclear negotiations between the six powers and Iran.

Iran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council demands on enrichment has led to two sets of sanctions against the country.

Iran argues the sanctions are illegal, noting it has the right to enrich uranium to generate nuclear power under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iranian officials say nuclear power is the only purpose of their program, dismissing suspicions that they ultimately want weapons-grade uranium for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

But the United States and others say past suspicious nuclear activities, including a program Iran kept secret for nearly two decades, set the country apart from others that have endorsed the treaty.

Negotiations broke down last year when the Iranian government refused to suspend enrichment.

Solana is to meet with Rice next week, when he attends an EU-U.S. summit in Washington.

Former spy boss turns on Bush team

Michael Gawenda, Washington
April 28, 2007

GEORGE Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against the Bush Administration in a new book, accusing it of pushing the country to war in Iraq without conducting a serious debate about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat.

The former CIA director labelled the Bush Administration's use of his now notorious "slam dunk" description of the evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction as despicable and dishonourable.

With his book At the Center of the Storm on his years as CIA director from July 1997 until July 2004 to be released on Monday, Mr Tenet, in excerpts released by CBS of an interview to screened on Sunday night, does not deny that he used the term.

But he says Administration officials, particularly Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have used it to pin responsibility for President George Bush's decision to invade Iraq on him. In the process, he says they have distorted what really happened.

Mr Tenet says that the CIA did believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but that when he used the "slam dunk" phrase in a meeting with Mr Bush and senior officials, he was referring to the CIA's ability to make a case for the existence of WMD in Iraq.

The book is the first detailed account by a member of the President's inner circle of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the weapons that were a key justification for the war.

The "slam dunk" comment, which Mr Tenet used in the December 21, 2002, meeting, was leaked to Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward after the invasion when the Administration was under pressure as it became increasingly clear that Iraq's WMD, the key reason for the war, were non-existent.

"It's the most despicable thing that happened to me," he says. "You don't do this. You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honourable?"

Mr Tenet says it is nonsense to suggest that his comment was decisive in the decision to go to war.

He says he is particularly furious with Mr Cheney and Dr Rice who continue to misuse the "slam dunk" comment to shift blame for the war onto the CIA and onto him in particular.

"And the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years, listening to the Vice-President … say, 'Well, George Tenet said slam dunk', as if he needed me to say slam dunk to go to war with Iraq," he says.

"I was a talking point. 'Look at the idiot who told us and we decided to go to war,' they were saying. Well, let's not be so disingenuous."

There have been no leaks of other revelations that might be in Mr Tenet's book, but it is believed he is scathing of Mr Cheney and his staff and their intelligence-gathering operations in the lead-up to the war, and of Dr Rice, whom he says he warned of the possibility of an al-Qaeda attack in the US months before September 11.

In the 60 Minutes interview, Mr Tenet defends the CIA's use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques in the "high value detainee program" against what he describes as senior al-Qaeda operatives. But he insists that these techniques did not amount to torture.

"I know that this program has saved lives," he says. "I know we've disrupted plots. I know that this program alone is worth more than the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us."

According to Mr Tenet, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, initially told CIA interrogators, "I will talk to you guys when you take me to New York and I can see my lawyer."

Instead, he was was transferred to an undisclosed location where he faced "enhanced" interrogation techniques, including water boarding.

According to Mr Tenant, he gave up vital information about terrorist threats. Mohammed, now held at Guantanamo, has claimed he was tortured by CIA interrogators.

Mr Tenet said the interrogation techniques were necessary because "these are people who will never, ever tell you a thing" but they are people who "know who's responsible for the next terrorist attack and who wouldn't blink an eyelash about killing you, your family, me and my family and everybody in town".

The book is sure to cause the Administration heartburn, though it is almost certain that there will be no official response to any allegations he makes against officials.

Instead, White House officials are likely to point to the fact that Mr Tenet, in December 2004, accepted the Medal of Honor from Mr Bush, a move that was widely criticised and that was widely regarded as a reward for him copping the blame for the faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons threat.

With NEW YORK TIMES